Peter R. Breggin, MD is an internationally known psychiatrist who has made it his life's work to help protect some of the most vulnerable among us--individuals who are in emotional crisis or who are otherwise somehow different, distressed, or psychically wounded. The lost, the lonely, the abandoned. The angry, the hopeless, the mad. The rebellious, the defiant. The traumatized. Just plain folks who are struggling with life's adversities or children struggling with routine conflicts in their homes and schools.

Psychiatry turns again and again to physical "treatments" for emotional distress or crisis. So-called psychiatric disorders have no known biological or genetic causes. There are no tests, no brain scans, no lesions that can be related to what is called "mental illness." The only biochemical imbalances found in the brains of people labeled mentally ill are the ones that are invariably caused by psychiatric drugs and electroshock treatment.

Currently psychiatric drugs are the most frequently used treatments. But psychiatry has turned to physical treatments again and again in its history. Electroshock is still commonly used and even psychosurgery is performed at some medical centers in the US. The result is hundreds or thousands more victims, too often damaged beyond repair by the very medical specialty that promises to help them.

Dr. Peter Breggin now brings us a scientific medical textbook that can be used as a guidebook on how to protect yourself, your family, your loved ones, from the excesses and dangers of psychiatry and its "treatments." It is no longer necessary to be seen by a psychiatrist in order to be at risk from psychiatric treatments. Your well-meaning family doctor, nurse practitioner, or physician's assistant, frequently write prescriptions for psychiatric drugs. These professionals have not been provided with the whole truth about how much is at risk for the patient when prescribed psychiatric drugs. They are misled by the drug companies and all too often misled by the very government agencies that are supposed to protect patients against injury, such as the Food and Drug Administration. Remember, there is always hope as long as there is life. But damage to the brain can be difficult if not impossible to reverse, especially in cases of prolonged exposure to psychiatric drugs or routine shock treatment.

Arm yourself now! Learn what you need to know to make better judgements about your own mental health care and the care of your family and friends. Especially if you have a loved one in crisis, you need to know the potential downsides of embarking upon a path of physical treatments for emotional crisis.

Peter R. Breggin, MD is no longer affiliated with the Center for the Study of Psychiatry, informally known as International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology, which he founded and led from 1972-2002, and Dr. Breggin will not participate in its conferences. Dr. Breggin and his colleagues will hold their new annual spring conference every April. Details are available at http://www.empathictherapy.org.

Brain-Disabling Treatments

in Psychiatry by Peter Breggin MD

Psychiatry's nature cannot be changed; it can only be constrained by public outrage